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This is a list of the various professional bodies and organisations that seek to provide regulation and oversight over individuals and firms operating in the accountancy industry.
Accounting standard setting bodies are national or international organisations that have been delegated responsibility for setting Generally Accepted Accounting Principles by statute in a country or jurisdiction.
Getting replaced soon by NFRA in the Company Bill 2012.
Professional bodies represent the interests of their members by lobbying governments, and provide the framework for self-regulation where this is permitted by statute. Professional bodies are also responsible for administering training and examinations for students and members.
The primary bodies in each country are affiliated to the International Federation of Accountants while a few do not belong to IFAC as they operate more like specialist bodies helping the work of accountants and auditors such as the field of taxation, forensic auditing and systems auditing. These bodies include:
Following the Enron scandal some countries removed or limited auditors' rights to self-regulation and set up independent, not-for-profit organisations to regulate the conduct of auditors. (In the EU it is compulsory to have a dedicated supervisory authority, cf. 8th European Directive).
Pronouncements by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) govern audit, review and other assurance services conducted in accordance with international standards. [18] Most countries that have adopted the International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) still retain the national auditing standards setting body to enact the international standards in their country.
National accounting standard setting board. NACAS.
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the processing of information about economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of stakeholders, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators. Practitioners of accounting are known as accountants. The terms "accounting" and "financial reporting" are often used interchangeably.
An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certified Accountant or Certified Public Accountant, or Registered Public Accountant. Such professionals are granted certain responsibilities by statute, such as the ability to certify an organization's financial statements, and may be held liable for professional misconduct. Non-qualified accountants may be employed by a qualified accountant, or may work independently without statutory privileges and obligations.
The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) was founded in June 1973 in London at the initiative of Sir Henry Benson, former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The IASC was created by national accountancy bodies from a number of countries with a view to harmonizing the international diversity of company reporting practices. Between its founding in 1973 and its dissolution in 2001, it developed a set of International Accounting Standards (IAS) that gradually acquired a degree of acceptance in countries around the world. Although the IASC came to include some organizations representing preparers and users of financial statements, it largely remained an initiative of the accountancy profession. On 1 April 2001, it was replaced by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), an independent standard-setting body. The IASB adopted the extant corpus of IAS which it continued to develop as International Financial Reporting Standards.
Chartered accountants were the first accountants to form a professional accounting body, initially established in Scotland in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants (1854), the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries (1854) and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants (1867) were each granted a royal charter almost from their inception. The title is an internationally recognised professional designation; the certified public accountant designation is generally equivalent to it. Women were able to become chartered accountants only following the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 after which, in 1920, Mary Harris Smith was recognised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and became the first woman chartered accountant in the world.
Founded in 1904, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the global professional accounting body offering the Chartered Certified Accountant qualification (ACCA). It has 240,952 members and 541,930 future members worldwide. ACCA's headquarters are in London with principal administrative office in Glasgow. ACCA works through a network of over 110 offices and centres in 51 countries - with 346 Approved Learning Partners (ALP) and more than 7,600 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide employee development.
The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), South Africa’s pre-eminent accountancy body, is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading accounting institutes. The institute provides a wide range of support services to more than 48,000 members and associates who are chartered accountants (CAs(SA)), as well as associate general accountants (AGAs(SA)) and accounting technicians (ATs(SA)).
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is India's largest professional accounting body under the administrative control of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. It was established on 1 July 1949 as a statutory body under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 enacted by the Parliament for promotion, development and regulation of the profession of Chartered Accountancy in India.
Founded in 1908, the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGA-Canada) serves Certified General Accountants and students in Canada and nearly 100 countries. CGA-Canada established the designation's certification requirements and professional standards, offers professional development, conducts research and advocacy, and represents CGAs nationally and internationally. CGA-Canada joined the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada to integrate operations under the CPA banner in 2015. CPA Canada is the new national accounting body formed by the merger of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) and the Society of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) in 2013, and now Certified General Accountants.
IFACnet, the KnowledgeNet for Professional Accountants, was the global, multilingual search engine developed by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and its members to provide professional accountants worldwide with one-stop access to good practice guidance, articles, management tools and other resources. This enterprise search engine was launched on October 2, 2006, by INDEZ. Originally marketed to professional accountants in business, IFACnet was expanded in March 2007 to provide resources and information relevant to small and medium accounting practices. In 2014, IFACnet was expanded and replaced by IFAC Knowledge Gateway, providing thought leadership and resources from IFAC and across the accountancy profession.
Accountancy in Hong Kong is regulated by the HKICPA under the Professional Accountants Ordinance. The auditing industry for limited companies is regulated under the Companies Ordinance, and other Ordinances such as the Securities and Futures Ordinance, the Listing Rules, etc.
The accountancy profession in Malaysia is regulated by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) through the powers conferred by the Accountants Act, 1967. The MIA is an agency under the Ministry of Finance and reports directly to the Accountant General Office. As at 4 February 2016, MIA has 32,618 members of which 68% are involved in commerce and industry, 22% in public practice and 10% in government and academia. Selangor and the Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory have the largest concentration of MIA membership with 13,125 and 7,351 members respectively. https://web.archive.org/web/20150725035639/http://www.mia.org.my/new/members_statistics_state.asp
The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) develops and promotes the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. The IESBA also supports debate on issues related to accounting ethics and auditor independence.
The National Board of Accountants and Auditors (NBAA) is an accounting professional and regulatory body operating under the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, the sole body to certify accountants in Tanzania. It began operating on 15 January 1973.
The Liberian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (LICPA) is a professional association of accountants in Liberia.
The Institute of Authorized Chartered Auditors of Albania is a professional body that regulates the accountancy industry in Albania.
The Lebanese Association of Certified Public Accountants (LACPA), in the Republic of Lebanon, was created by the Accountancy Profession Act No. 364/1994 to become the sole organization in Lebanon representing more than 1711 members of the CPA profession as of May 2011. LACPA is an active member of (IFAC) International Federation of Accountants, (FIDEF) Federation Internationale des Experts-Comptables Francophone and (AFAA) Arab Federation for Accountants and Auditors a federation of the Joint Arab Economic Action Charter of the Arab League.
Chartered Professional Accountant is the professional designation which united the three Canadian accounting designations that previously existed:
CPA Ireland, formerly the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland, is one of the main Irish accountancy bodies, with 5,000 members and students.
Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada is the national organization representing the Canadian accounting profession through the unification of the three largest accounting organizations: the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), the Society of Management Accountants of Canada and Certified General Accountants of Canada (CGA-Canada), as well as the 40 national and provincial accounting bodies. It is one of the largest organizations of its type in the world, with over 217,000 Chartered Professional Accountants in Canada and around the world.
Canada was the second nation in the world to formally organize its accounting profession, after the United Kingdom, but it occurred in a fragmented manner by both locality and specialty. It would only begin to experience significant consolidation from 2012 onwards.